This news scares me.

The book’s not that great, but I was surprised to see how Lovecraft-influenced it is. It starts off as a spooky Lovecraft story and ends as a kid enrolls in Xaviar’s School For Gifted Youngsters, which sounds great but it really offers nothing new. It’s also basically an origin story that promises (threatens) more installments.

But I was just horrified when I realized that Johnny Depp could play the main kid’s father (DADDY ISSUES BUILT IN) and that Helena Bonham Carter could do Ms. Peregrine. Yikes.

It’s good to have you back, Don Coscarelli. Phantasm is easily my favorite horror series (Name a more consistent one! It’s impossible.) and Bubba Ho-Tep was a pitch-perfect Joe Lansdale adaptation, so you know how much I loved that one.

Lucky attendees at Fantastic Fest got a chance to see this first footage from John Dies at the End, based on the book of the same name from Cracked.com editor Jason Pargin (under the pseudonym of David Wong, and written in the first person). Darkly humorous, utterly violent, and one hell of a dreamy drug trip- it’s pretty much perfect for Coscarelli. Absolutely can’t wait to see the final product.

I’ve been a fan of the book since Permuted Press put it out in 2007 but thousands of people originally read a serialized on Wong’s website before it got taken down when he got it published.

There’s a sequel to the book on the way called THIS BOOK IS FULL OF SPIDERS: Seriously Dude, Don’t Touch It, so you might want to jump on the first one now.

I borrowed this book from the library (digitally, on my NOOK color!) a couple of weeks ago and really loved it. The first novel from DC Pierson of Derrick Comedy and Mystery Team fame, it’s a really sentimental look at the high school experience.

It’s about a kid named Darren, a loner artist in school who ends up befriending a weird kid named Eric and writing an epic series with him. They spend their nights just dorking out about possible films and comics and all sorts of spinoffs that could come from their creation, really fleshing out this world and getting excited about their project. Eric’s a weird kid but he’s fun and actually seems to appreciate Darren’s art, so he doesn’t mind hanging with him. It’s not till Eric reveals that he’s never slept once in his life that Darren realizes that his buddy has superhero powers… of a sort.

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I love my NOOK Color. Absolutely love it. I got it as a gift from my parents last Christmas and almost asked them to return it- I’d been reading books on the kindle app on my phone (Droid X, with its nice large screen) and didn’t see the need for it.

I WAS WRONG.

The thing doesn’t leave my side lately. The fact that you can borrorow books from libraries, on top of the massive amount of authors that are putting their books out for around 3-5 bucks a pop has meant that I’ve been reading almost nonstop every free minute I get. I can’t even count how many books I’ve read in the last few months. The NOOK Color’s gotten a few firmware upgrades over time and become more of a little tablet, with an upgrade to Android 2.2. The processor still feels slower than my phone, but the internet is a nice touch. Wish there was a better browser for it but now they have an app store so there’s hope in the future. Unless you’ve rooted it, of course, in which case you can pretty much get anything you want.

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This is something I’d been talking about doing for weeks with my buddy Luke while we played the Game of Thrones: Living Card Game. (Excellent game, by the way.)

Originally it was just a text file but today I had the inspiration of scanning in the heraldic crests from the beginning of every chapter and printing the thing out, for authenticity. Then I gave it to my 14 month old daughter who proceeded to rip it, crush it, and even chew on a corner.

Perfect.

I scanned it back in and it was good to go. Hope you enjoy.

Much more happy with this review for Badass Digest. Amazing book, really- one of those ones I just HAD to write something about after immediately finishing. Really love when something inspires me that much.

Currently reading Erik Larsen’s In the Garden of Beasts, which I may like even more than Devil in the White City, and I love that book.

It’s yet another non-fiction story by the author, this one about the American Ambassador to Nazi Germany, William Dodd. He headed over there in 1933 and brought along his wife and kids, not having any idea of what they were going to experience. It starts off relatively tamely, with just a few hints here and there of a society going insane, of atrocities being hushed up and disbelieved by the people living there while the rest of the world grew more wary. 

Much of the information in the book was gleaned from journals left by William Dodd and his daughter Martha Dodd, and it’s just some stunning stories. They regularly met with all the most notorious people in Germany at the time- Joseph Goebbels, Hermann Göring, and of course Hitler himself.

In one of the more shocking chapters, Martha goes on somewhat of a date with Hitler. She was actually set up by her friend Ernst Hanfstaengl, who assumed that all Hitler needed was to get laid. That’s right, he tried to set her up with him to prevent a war.

I’m 2/3rds of the way through it but utterly captivated, as it definitely shows a new face to all these infamous characters.

Highly, highly recommended, as are all of Larsen’s books. Check out his site for more.

I’ve been reading JG Ballard’s Crash with a kind of horrified half-chub. It’s a very sexy, very disturbing book- and it’s even more extreme than David Cronenberg’s film, if you can believe that. I haven’t seen it in years though so I’m curious what I take from it this time. Might have to queue that sucker up.

I doubt you’ve heard of this book called Game of Thrones by this George R.R.R.R. Martin character, but it’s pretty damn good. Unlike anyone else in the world right now I just started reading the series and have been pretty goddamn impressed by how epic it is, how beautifully realized the world is, how realistic the characters feel and how much I’m getting sucked into all the drama. And there are three more books and one more hitting in July? Someone should make a movie of this!

All joking aside, though- this paperback has made me realize what a Nook snob I’ve become. I’m so used to plopping my little e-reader down anywhere I go and not have to worry about all these old world trifles like TURNING PAGES or HOLDING IT OPEN. Quite annoying.

On my way home this morning I stood on the platform waiting for the R train reading my nook and a guy walks by and bumps into it, nearly knocking it out of my hand. I stopped and looked up at him to see if he’d do the right thing.

“Sorry,” he says, and laughs as he continues to walk by. Not the best response, but I’d take it. Till his lady friend comes waking from behind him and sasses “Oh please! He shouldn’t be doing that anyway.”

I laugh, incredulous. “Excuse me? I shouldn’t be reading my book?” They looked back and mimicked my “excuse me” and laughed again and I immediately saw red.

“Keep walking,” I bellowed, my dormant Bronx accent rearing its head.They looked back with wide eyes and half-paused, perhaps surprised that this guy in a suit wasn’t backing down for them and I opened my mouth again… and immediately shut it. They walked a little way down to the end of the platform and when the train came I moved farther away to be sure I wasn’t on the same car as them.

In the past I never sought out fights but I wouldn’t run from any that came my way. Fatherhood has changed that. I constantly find myself stopping from doing things I would have done without a second thought, even if it’s as simple as cross a street against the light. Rough or loud people on the subway used to make me more wary but would never prevent me from sitting where I was going to sit, but now I’ll remove myself from the situation so I don’t have one.

It’s funny how at 29 I finally feel like I’m growing up.

But anyway, that asshole’s comment made me think of the late Mr. Hicks’ encounter with a waffle waitress.